A Pakistani truck driver offers evening prayers at a border terminal that has been closed. (Shakil Adil — Associated Press)

“We now have a two-way approval to move equipment back out of Afghanistan,” Air Force Gen. William Fraser III, head of the U.S. Transport Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. The agreement will allow non-lethal supplies and equipment plus wheeled armored vehicles to enter and leave Afghanistan, something that was not permitted before, Fraser said.

Arms and lethal weapons have been carried by aircraft, which are still being used to transport materiel brought to Pakistan by ship, Fraser said.

The expanded northern route agreement involves Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia and will help remove troops and motorized equipment as a reduction in U.S. and coalition forces takes place over the next two years. Fraser said the new approach must still be tested. He added that Pakistan land supply routes still need to be opened “because of the large numbers that we’re talking about that we need to bring out in a timely manner.”

“We’re tasked this year to bring another 23,000 troops out by the first of October,” he said, noting that excess equipment is already being identified. In addition, all cargo-capable aircraft that now fly into Afghanistan are being used to remove excess equipment, Fraser said.

In the past, Pakistan’s truck routes to Afghanistan carried 60 percent to 70 percent of NATO supplies while the northern route handled the rest.

Walter Pincus reported on intelligence, defense and foreign policy for The Washington Post. He first came to the paper in 1966 and has covered numerous subjects, including nuclear weapons and arms control, politics and congressional investigations. He was among Post reporters awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.